Plastic fence picket



Mam}! 1951 N. J. DU BATTO ET AL 2,545,845

PLASTIC FENCE PICKET Filed Aug. 14, 1948 5 Z L Fl 4-.

- 'r INVENTOR- Z NICHOLAS J. DU BATTO AND -CHARLES 'VOLF FIBZ. 5% gfla j gg,

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Patented Mar. 20,1951

7 PLASTIC FENCE PICKET Nicholas J. Du Batto, Mastic Beach, and Charles Wolf, Ronkonkoma, N. Y.

. pp cation August 14, 1948, Serial No. 44,378

If 2 Claims. (01. 256-19) This inventionrelates generally to the art of fences and particularly to a new, novel, and useful picket. I

There are picket fences of various forms of construction and materials. Invariably they are provided with pickets of wood or metal. The

pickets of metalfences usually rust, or, if made f non-rustable material, are very expensive.

The pickets of wooden fences are not durable, are subject to decay and rot, require considerable a tention and periodic painting. Pickets of such fences are in the long run expensive, and their pleasantappearanceis'shortlived."

ing of any kind.

Generally our invention relates to a hollow fence picket preferably constructed ofplastics.

This picket may come in parts capable of being 'joined together.

The picket may consist simply of a shell case and a cover for the shell. Bosses may be incorporated in either the shell, the cover, or in both to serve as supporting means for the passage of fasteners to the crossrails of a fence.

Our fence picket in its preferred form is made up of a shell or case and a complementary cover joinable to the shell. It is constructed of plastics. The shell or case has a tongued marginal flange joinable to a marginally grooved cover. The shell and cover when joined together form a hollow picket. The assembled picket is securable to the cross-rails of a fence by means of fasteners preferably through bosses contained desirably in the interior of the picket.

And the general object of this invention is to provide a hollow fence picket made preferably of plastics.

Another object of this invention is to provide a. fence picket consisting of a shell or case and a cover as a complement thereto, both joinable together and preferably made of plastics.

A further object of this invention is to provide a fence picket of plastics consisting of a shell and a cover joinable thereto, and provided with bossesthrough which fasteners may pass to hold the picket to the cross-rails of a fence.

Other advantages and objects of this invention will become apparent as this specification unfolds in detail and by reading it in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred form of the invention is illustrated.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a specific embodiment of our invention.

iii

ginal flange 2 about its base 3.

Fig. 2 is a side longitudinal sectional view of the invention, taken on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Fig. 3 is a cross section on the lines 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a cross section on the lines 4-4 of Fig. 1.

r Fig. 5 is a cross section on the lines 4-4 of Fig. 1, but with the cover and shell separated.

Describing this invention in detail and in its preferred form, the shell or case I has a mar- The flange is topped with a tongue 4. The cover 5 as a complement to the shell I is provided about its interior face 6 with a groove 1 to receive the tongue 4. The shell 5 is provided with bosses 8. These bosses have holes 9 permitting passage therethrough of means for fastening the picket to the cross-rails of a fence. It sufiices to have three of such bosses in each picket, two upper bosses for passage of fasteners to the top cross-rail of a fence, and a lower boss for the fastener to the bottom cross-rail of a fence. Such is the preferred form of our invention; however, we do not wish to be strictly limited to such form, and claim all such modifications to which our invention is reasonably susceptible.

Now the bosses 8 may be incorporated in the shell or case i as in our preferred form, or they may be in the cover 5, or they may be partly in both the cover and the shell. The bosses, besides serving as supporting means through which the cross rail fasteners may pass, also serve to strengthen the picket; and it is preferable in the assembled picket that the bosses extend the full interior depth of the picket, that is from the base of the shell I to contact the interior face 5 of cover 5.

Our invention is made of plastics. Other materials, such as wood, metal, fibre and others could be used, but not with the results desirably obtained by the use of plastics.

Plastics are used as they are not expensive, are moldable, and have favorable physical properties. Further, plastics are non deformable. Our plastics picket will neither warp nor misshapen in hot, wet, or cold weather.

Plastics are durable and their pleasant appearance is long lasting; pickets of plastic retain their brightness, and are not subject to rust or rot such museum with metal and wood.

Again plastics are preferred in the making of our new picket, as they do not require painting, which is a very important economical and labor saving feature.

Plastics can be made in a wide choice of colors durably incorporated as an ingredient of the material. Hence, our plastics fence picket may be made colorless, or in any color desired, such as, blues, greens, reds, yellows, and so on. There is no end to the beauty of design and symmetry that may be had by using pickets of the same or various colors in a fence.

Our invention consists in the novel arrangement, construction, and combination of parts, and while we have shown and described a preferred form of our invention; yet we do not wish to be limited to such, and it is our intent to claim all set forth herein as well as all modifications and forms as may be reasonably included within the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. For use in combination with the conventional upper and lower cross-rails of a fence, a picket having its component parts formed of plastics material and having in combination a shell and a cover for the shell, the one being a complement of the other, the shell serving as a base for the picket and having a flat inner and outer surface, a marginal flange about the said inner surface, a tongue section atop the flange,

. and boss elements integral with and upright from the inner surface of the shell, the said cover having a flat inner and outer surface and a marginal groove about the said inner surface in which groove the tongue section is removably received, there being three of said boss elements, one lower and two upper bosses, the extreme surface ends of said bosses being in supporting contact with the inner surface of the cover, said cover having holes therethrough in alignment with holes provided through the bosses and shell, said holes serving as a means for the passage of fasteners through the picket to the upper and lower crossrails of the fence, and said picket having a horizontal lower end, side parallel to one another and at right angles to the said lower end, and said parallel sides tapering to a point at the tip of the picket.

2. The combination in a fence picket fashioned of plastics material of a shell element and a covering member for the shell, the one being a complement of the other, the shell element serving as a base and having a, flat inner and outer surface, a marginal flange about the inner surface of the shell, a tongue section atop the marginal flange and bosses integral with and projecting up from the inner surface of the shell, the covering member having a flat inner and outer surface and a marginal groove about its inner surface, in which groove the tongue section of the marginal flange is contained and from which groove it is readily removable, the extreme surface ends of said bosses being in supporting contact with the inner surface of the covering element, said covering element having holes therethrough in alignment with holes provided through the bosses and shell member, said holes serving as a means for the passage of fasteners whereby the picket may be secured to the conventional cross-rails of a fence.

NICHOLAS J. DU BATTO. CHARLES WOLF.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 213,993 Inman Apr. 8, 1879 319,277 Lesher June 2, 1885 1,122,997 Pearson Dec. 29, 1914 1341,724 Ferris Jan. 9,1923 1,630,524 Bruder May 31, 1927 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 8,654 Great Britain June 16, 1887 

